Harmonix have announced the availability of twelve tracks from Iron Maiden, one of the world’s most successful rock bands, on June 9 in the Rock Band Music Store for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

Live recordings of “Aces High,” “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” “Fear of the Dark” and “Iron Maiden,” are among those available for download in the Rock Band Music Store June 9. The other eight songs were among those featured on the band’s Somewhere Back in Time World Tour. This will mark the first time master recordings from Iron Maiden have been made available on Rock Band games.

“Fans have been asking us to do something with Rock Band for some time, and this seemed to be a perfect opportunity,” said Maiden manager Rod Smallwood. “Our recent Somewhere Back in Time tour was perhaps the most enjoyable one we have ever undertaken and certainly the most successful with almost 2 million people catching the shows around the world. So it just seemed a good idea to make some of the songs we played available now so fans can play along with the band on the tour. Then we shall see if they can keep up with the band!!”

Harmonix and MTV Games have announced the addition of six new Grateful Dead tracks to the Rock Band Music Store catalogue of downloadable content.

The tracks include “Cold Rain & Snow” from the band’s original 1967 album, The Grateful Dead., "Hell in a Bucket” from the 1987 In the Dark album, “Uncle John’s Band” from Workingman's Dead (1970), “Fire on the Mountain” from Shakedown Street (1978), “Don’t Ease Me In” from Go to Heaven (1980) and “Doin’ That Rag,” from the 1969 album Aoxomoxoa.

Grateful Dead, well known for its 30 years of wild and lengthy tours, announced last week its first tour in over five years. Founded by the infamous singer-songwriter Jerry Garcia, the band’s journey ignited in San Francisco’s Haight and Ashbury district during the psychedelic ’60s. In 2007 the Recording Academy honoured Grateful Dead with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for its contribution to the evolution of rock music.

Harmonix and MTV Games have announced the rock-pop pioneers of No Doubt will bring thirteen tracks to the Rock Band music catalogue of downloadable content, expanding the Rock Band library to include more than 500 songs.

[quote]
No Doubt’s: ‘The Singles 1992-2003’ pack will include 13 master tracks from the band’s 2003 album The Singles 1992-2003, which featured a compilation of hits from No Doubt’s previous albums Tragic Kingdom, Return of Saturn, and Rock Steady. The album sold more than 2.2 million copies in the United States alone. The No Doubt tracks included in the pack are listed below. Pricing will be US$1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) per track or US$19.99 (1600 Microsoft Points) for the pack. The tracks will be available for download starting December 9, 2008 for the Xbox 360 and December 11, 2008, for the PS3.

 

The yanks got it first, back in November last year, and now the game which has become not only a smash hit with avid gamers around the world, but also a social phenomenon in its own right, is now coming to New Zealand.

Developed by Harmonix Music Systems (the original creators of Guitar Hero) in collaboration with MTV Games and Electronic Arts, Rock Band is software combined with a collection of hardware peripherals designed to emulate a real band experience by way of electronic interfaces with your preferred console. As a purely clinical description this will suffice; those who have played it will be aware that looks can deceive, as beneath the friendly plastic exterior lies hours and hours of absolutely mad entertainment.

 

GP: From E3 we know Gears of War 2 will be released worldwide on 7th November. Is Xbox NZ planning anything special? Do you think NZ will be the first to get their hands on it due to our advantage over GMT?

Hunt: Yes we get it first which is pretty cool – little advantage for Kiwis online. For the GoW fan boys there’s a Limited Edition copy of the game available for pre-order and at launch we might also do something at the RvB gaming lounge.

GP: Please tell us more about Xbox’s new content delivery – how and when will this benefit Kiwis?

Harmonix and MTV Games, along with partner Electronic Arts today revealed at the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit new features for the next evolution of Rock Band 2.

Rock Band 2 is set to raise the bar in music gaming innovation with new features to rock the world. From a press release issued this morning:

• Local and global online modes to connect the entire Rock Band community.
• World Tour mode, now online, simplifies the best of gameplay from the original Rock Band by fusing Solo Tour and Band World Tour modes and cranks it up a notch with an all new collection of opportunity gigs, challenges, cities, venues and hirable staff.
• Tour Challenges that offer rockers a chance to play through mini-campaigns focused on the best songs by instrument, decade, genre, artist, album and more.
• Battle of the Bands mode challenges players to go head to head against other bands in constantly refreshed contests created by Harmonix (internet connection required)
• Quickplay makes it easier than ever to get in and jam without hassle while allowing for new prefab characters or customized characters that can play on any instrument plus lets you make your own set lists and organize your song lists in a variety of categories (genre, era, etc.)
• Customizable Set Lists keep the music rolling and your band rocking in Quickplay mode.
• Drum Trainer mode gives players the fundamentals of different beats and fills, translating gameplay into real drumming skills.
• Character Creator completes your look with all new choices in clothing, accessories, tattoos, hairstyles, instruments and more to keep your unique rock avatar playing the full rock part.
• Backwards compatibility with all Rock Band downloadable music content released to date.
• Disc Export Feature gives owners of the original Rock Band the ability to export most of the Rock Band disc tracks and upgrade them into Rock Band 2 gameplay--the first time ever in videogame history!

Harmonix, MTV Games and Electronic Arts have announced that Rock Band 2 will be released in North America this September. With the original providing millions of players a new way to interact with the music and artists they love, Rock Band 2 is the next evolution of the franchise that redefined the standard for music games.

Rock Band is the groundbreaking platform that allows music fans and gamers to interact with music like never before - but only if you live in a country where it will actually be released. The game challenges players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune while learning to master lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals.

Rock Band 2 builds upon its foundation as the first music game to introduce co-operative band gameplay, multiple instruments, an online multiplayer experience, and an offering of downloadable content.

GP: When you released Crysis, there was a huge amount of hype surrounding the product. How did you juggle the expectation the public and the media had, and at the same time keep the development team happy?

Robinson: It was definitely a hyped title, like a lot of these titles are! But the challenges - one is creating the hype, and the second is making sure the product matches the hype. Because obviously all you want is a positive experience at the end of the day. What you don’t want is to create the hype and then be unable to match it.

So yeah, we’re really happy with Crysis, we thought it would be a 90+ rated title, and it ended up being a 90+ rated title, which was a huge success for us, and a huge success for Crytek.